Essex County Council (ECC) has announced that close to 90 per cent of parents and carers have received their first choice place in primary school place allocations today (Friday, 16 April).

The allocations for the academic year starting in September, 2021, are sure to be closely scrutinised by Dengie Peninsula communities following issues with secondary school placements for local children in March, when some living in the area were initially offered places as far away as Brightlingsea. That issue was later resolved through additional places being made available at Ormiston Rivers Academy in Burnham-on-Crouch and at William de Ferrers School in South Woodham Ferrers.

However, the matter also led to the formation of The Dengie School Allocation Action Group within the local community. There is currently a ongoing consultation to permanently increase intake places at Ormiston Rivers by 30 pupils per year. You can find a previous Nub News article on that, including comment from the school, at the link here.

In the statement released by ECC on primary school places today, the breakdown of figures for allocations across the county is as follows:

• First preference school – 89.75 per cent
• Second preference school – 5.94 per cent
• Third preference school – 1.93 per cent
• Fourth preference school – 0.70 per cent
• 1.68 per cent of pupils could not be offered one of their parent's preferred schools and have been offered a place at the nearest school with a place available.

A spokesperson for ECC said: "Nearly 16,000 parents and carers in Essex will the discover the outcome of their primary school applications today, with those who applied online getting confirmation by email or via the Essex County Council (ECC) website.

"Out of a total of 15,779 applications that were received on time, 14,161 pupils who are due to start in Reception Year in September 2021 have been offered their parent or carer's first preference of primary school."